One Heck of a Birthday Party
On a glorious early autumn Saturday I found myself on the road to Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz Guitar Company, a small shop of guitar makers in Santa Cruz, CA, celebrated its 35th birthday in semi-public fashion, and I had scored an invitation from the owner, Richard Hoover.
The Santa Cruz Guitar Company, affectionately known as SCGC, makes high end acoustic guitars in small batches for dealers in the US, Europe, and Asia. They average about 750 completed instruments a year, in deep contrast to Martin Guitars, which makes about 750 instruments a day.
I was happily on my way to Santa Cruz that Saturday to celebrate the birthday of my favorite guitar brand, renew acquaintances with Richard Hoover and the SCGC crew. I was also hoping for the chance to jam with some of Santa Cruz’s finest musicians. I was not disappointed.
I arrived shortly after two in the afternoon. Traffic was thick for a Saturday in the Bay Area. It took me two and a half hours to get there. But the weather was magnificent, so from Pelandale Avenue to California Route 9 the stereo was up and the windows were down. I find it nearly impossible to get frustrated with traffic listening to Eric Skye, Richard Thompson, Maria McKee, and Emmy Lou Harris.
The community hall at Harvey West Park was all done up in cowboy style. Bails of hay were augmented with cowboy boots, saddles, ropes, chaps, etc. And a life-size cardboard cut out of the best singing cowboy around, Don Edwards, stood next to the front door welcoming us to the party. The décor went hand in glove with a recent marketing effort centered on a contest to name the cowgirl in the new cowgirl images SCGC may (or may not –I’m not privy to these things) continue to use.
Upon arrival I stowed my instruments and chatted a bit with a few friends. They described the previous night’s revels in some detail. Apparently I missed an excellent show. Conversation the turned to the impending completion of a custom-ordered SCGC guitar, one that I hope to get to play sometime. The details of this guitar are likely to be exciting only to those of us steeped in the minutiae of acoustic guitar materials and production, but attention to such details by both the purchaser and the maker ensure that this guitar will be sonically and visually gorgeous.
Discussion of a wonderful new instrument had whetted my appetite to play, so I went looking for my bassist and friend, Matt. When I discovered him he too was in the throes of new-instrument ecstasy. Matt had acquired a new upright bass and was itching to put it through its paces. Ever obliging, I retrieved my mandolin, and we took our time warming up on some of our more basic material. Matt needed time to get acquainted with the both the tone and the dimensions of his new bass. Getting comfortable with a new instrument can be a bit like breaking in a baseball mitt –in reverse. In this case, the player has to come to an accommodation with instrument rather than forcing the instrument to conform to the player.
The two of us made a non-guitar duo at a guitar party. I felt only a little odd about this because I knew that our hosts enjoyed it, and there were guitars all over the place. So our little impromptu performance could have been compared in an epicurean mind to a sherbet between the meat and fish courses of a large formal meal.
After a bit of chatting with both old and new friends, I fell into another larger jam with some of Santa Cruz’s finest local talent. Ukulele Dick and his band swapped tunes with me and Matt for a time. Our jam circle consisted of bass, ukulele, 3 different varieties of guitar, and myself on mandolin. We filled the deck outside the community building with an appreciative audience when we rambled into a spirited version of Paul Simon’s “Under African Skies.” We held them for a few tunes with an upbeat 4/4 version of Dylan’s “Farewell Angelina” and a blues by Matt called “Duo Glide.”
About the same time the audience wandered back into the hall to hear Don Edwards regale them with his effortless and soulful renditions of cowboy ballads. I heard the performance was amazing from a friend who is not usually a fan of cowboy music, but I remained nailed to my spot. Guitarist and rhythmatist Bob Brozman joined our little jam, and injected an element of challenging musical fun.
Bob led us through some very cleverly written Calypso tunes from the 20s and 30s, explaining the complexity of rhythmic structure and pointing out the simplicity of the harmonic structure. Ukulele Dick and his band added fun jazz-pop tunes from the same era to the mix, so our jam kept rolling along. Matt and I hung on for the ride. I think we sat in that circle for at least 3 hours, because it was nearly time for dinner before I knew what had happened.
After a lovely picnic meal and some seriously rich chocolate cake we toasted Richard Hoover and his band of accomplished artisans. They make, in my humble opinion, guitars that can only be equaled, never surpassed. SCGC’s continued success as a business is an oasis of excellent news in our current economic climate, and it’s a testament to the old adage, “Do what you love and the money will follow.”
They also know how to host one heck of a party. Hopefully we’ll get to do it again before another 35 years goes by.
